Stotler: Victory at OCC ‘validates’ Trailblazers

Published 3:14 pm, Thursday, June 4, 2015

OLNEY — As someone who’s coached basketball for more than just a few years, Doug Stotler knows about putting things into perspective. And following Wednesday night’s 71-68 overtime victory at Olney Central College, he did just that.

He said the hard-fought win “validated” his Trailblazers. And after a OCC’s Conner Wittmer missed a long trey at the end of overtime, LCCC had swept the Blue Knights on the season.

“This Olney win on the road may not go down as the greatest victory ever for Lewis and Clark basketball,” Stotler said, “but for our current players and me, it validates our continued improvement this season because this is the third Region 24 team we’ve beaten both at home and on the road.

“It was truly a team victory.”

The Trailblazers are 11-13 overall and 8-9 against Region 24 and District 12 foes, while OCC dropped to 6-19 and 2-15. LCCC came into the game after dropping an 87-71 decision to Kaskaskia Saturday, while the Blue Knights were coming off an 82-68 victory over Rend Lake College.

On Wednesday, a furious final 15 seconds of regulation nearly saw the Trailblazers pull out the victory in regulation time.

After the Blue Knights tied it at 61-61 with 15 seconds remaining in the second half, LCCC’s Cratit missed a shot from the lane with seven seconds remaining.

Olney got the ball back on the play when the Trailblazers couldn’t corral the offensive rebound. The ball was knocked out of bounds by LCCC, giving the ball back to the Blue Knights with 2.7 seconds showing on the clock.

But on the inbounds play, Olney threw the ball deep and LCCC intercepted the pass and called timeout. The Trailblazers ran a three-quarter court sideline inbounds play and again got the ball to Cratit, who nearly hit a 24-foot trey.

In the overtime period, the Trailblazers outscored the Blue Knights 10-7, but not until Wittmer’s last-second miss.

OCC was led by Steven Davis who scored 23 points, including six treys. Wittmer scored 19 points, including 19 three-pointers and Dominic Jackson added 11 points, including three treys.

Not that beating OCC was an upset, but the way in which LCCC kept its composure against a longstanding Region 24 Division I team was satisfying to Stotler.

“The thing we knew about Olney was going to do well was that they shoot the three-ball,” Stotler said, “and they did that very well in the first half. We could not guard them.”

Overall, the Blue Knights were 14 of 34 from beyond the three-point arc.

OCC sent the game into overtime with a basket with 15 seconds left in regulation. But it didn’t come before last-second 3-point shot by LCCC’s JJ Cratit fell off at the buzzer.

The Blue Knights raced out to a nine-point halftime lead, 34-23 in front of their home fans in the on-campus gym locals have dubbed “The Dungeon.”

But the Trailblazers rallied to outscore OCC 38-27 in the second half. And after Cratit’s last-second shot failed, the teams headed to OT.

“We made a key defensive adjustment in the second half and contained them much better,” Stotler said.

In other Region 24 scores Wednesday, John A. Logan College of Carterville lost to No. 1-ranked Vincennes University 76-69, Southeastern Illinois College of Harrisburg beat Lincoln Trail 101-79, Kaskaskia College defeated Lake Land 85-82 and Shawnee College of Ullin beat Southwestern Illinois of Belleville 83-76.

The next action for LCCC will be at 3 p.m. in Mount Carmel against Wabash Valley. The next home game will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 18 when John A. Logan visits the River Bend Arena.